Falling
by anngraham
Summary: What happens when Graham can no longer take the Doctor's insults. Warning: Character Death.


p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"Disclaimer: Swamp Thing belongs to those who own it./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"br /span style="text-decoration: underline;"strongFalling/strong/span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"*em style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Stupid ... incompetent ... moron/em!* the words drifted through Graham's style="mso-spacerun:yes" /span*em style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Can't you do anything right/em?* Sighing he turned over, kicking the covers style="mso-spacerun:yes" /span*em style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Try to show at least an ounce of intelligence Graham/em!* Sitting up, he swung his legs out of bed, staring down at his feet as the Doctor's voice continued to echo in his style="mso-spacerun:yes" /span*em style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Graham you idiot/em!*/span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"Even knowing Dr. Arcane had been in a foul mood these past few weeks couldn't stop the knowledge that his employer truly meant style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanHe wasn't able to deny it to himself any style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThis had been going on for as long as he could remember, from the moment he had first started working for the style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThe constant threats, the abuse ... all so familiar to him he had long ago started to believe style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanHe was an idiot, and he couldn't do anything style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanEverything the Doctor said was style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanHe knew that, just as he knew nothing would ever style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanHe would still be Graham, balding, useless, stupid and unimportant, while Arcane would still be cruel, unbelievably brilliant, cold, and style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanAnd nothing was ever going to change that./span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"*em style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"I don't know why I even hired you/em!* In contrast to the jumble and noise in his thoughts, the silence surrounding him was a style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanIf he held perfectly still he could almost ignore the pain, could pretend it wasn't style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThat his heart didn't feel like it was splintering into style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanWhat did he have to look forward to? More abuse. More insults. The silence was better. The silence didn't style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThe silence didn't expect anything. span style="mso-tab-count:1" /span/span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"Sometimes he thought it would be easier to just … end it style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanOf course he wasn't naïve enough to think he could just quit on the style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanNo, employees who knew as much as he did only had one way out …span style="mso-spacerun:yes" /span/span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"… Death/span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"The thought wasn't as distressing as the first time he entertained the style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThen he'd been disgusted with himself, and had shoved the idea to the darkest part of this style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThe second, he'd entertained it a little longer … his resistance had been slowly worn down until now it only held … relief./span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style:  
normal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"Feel the presence all aroundbr / A tortured soulbr / A wound unhealingbr / No regrets or promisesbr / The past is gonebr /span/em/strongstrong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style:  
normal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"But you can still be free/span/em/strong /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB" style="mso-spacerun:yes" style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanGraham smiled, the silence in the room suddenly echoed in his style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanIt would be so style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanHe already knew how he'd do style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanTwo cuts, he knew the right places, and then all he'd have to do was style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanReaching into the side table he pulled out the scalpel he'd hidden there, months style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanHe hadn't taken it out style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanNot since now./spanspan lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB" /spanstrong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style:  
normal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt" /span/em/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style:  
normal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"Time now to spread your wingsbr / To take to flightbr / The life endeavorbr / Aim for the burning sunbr / You're trapped inside/span/em/strong /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:  
EN-GB"Hauling off his pyjama shirt, he tossed it carelessly on the ground. span style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanNo more worrying about the mess, no more agonising over how to please Dr. Arcane … no more worrying about style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanThere was surprisingly little pain as he cut deep into a vein, watching the blood seem to leap from the style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanCutting his other wrist was rather messy, good thing he didn't have to worry about cleaning the style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanA slightly hysterical laugh escaped then, leaning back against the pillows he allowed his arms to flop by his style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanIt didn't hurt; a warm light surrounded everything, even as he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore, as his body cooled rapidly … there was nothing to worry style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanNot style="mso-spacerun:yes" /spanNot ever again./span /p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style:  
normal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"Keep moving way up highbr / You see the lightbr / It shines foreverbr / Sail through the crimson skiesbr / The purest lightbr /span/em/strongstrong style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style:  
normal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"The light that sets you free/span/em/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"The End/span/p 


End file.
